Jadeja, Saha the gains for captain Kohli from two Tests

Kolkata, Oct 3 (IANS) India captain Virat Kohli on Monday said all-rounder Ravidra Jadeja and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha have been the takeaways besides the series win and reclaiming No.1 Test cricket ranking, from the first two Tests they have played against New Zealand in Kanpur and Kolkata.

“The way I see it, the batting contribution of Jadeja, Umesh Yadav a little bit in the first game, and Jadeja in both innings in the first game and Wridhdhiman Saha’s both innings in this game have been the gains,” Kohli told media persons at the post match conference here.

India thrashed the Kiwis by 178 runs to win the three match series 2-0 and get back to pole position in the Test heap. The next Test starts in Indore from Saturday.

“Rest of the guys we know that given a good day and good frame of mind they will come good. But these two guys (Jadeja and Saha) bat in very important positions in Test cricket and for them to be confident is very important.

“That’s one of the reasons why we waited for three overs in Kanpur to let Jadeja cross 50. That’s the way you understand how to get there again. If we would have declared at 45 he would have never understood how to get a half century in a Test match. So it’s all about building confidence. Because we understand how important his situation can be when you need to play out a session or get 45 quick runs,” added the captain.

Jadeja remained unbeaten on 42 and 50 in both innings of the Kanpur Test. Here though, the southpaw failed to make many runs.

Saha on the other hand was adjudged man-of-the-match for his unconquered knocks in both essays here, scoring 54 and 58 respectively at vital junctures.

“Saha has done very well this year and good luck to him for that. I hope it keeps coming good for the team and is an added bonus,” Kohli said.

Saha has this year scored 317 runs in six matches including his maiden century in the West Indies. The diminutive Bengal lad averages 63.40.

On this being a victory where the entire team chipped in, Kohli said he prefers this rather than an individual performance winning a match for the team.

“If all of your players perform there is nothing like it. Because you don’t want to sit in the changing room and see couple of players with sad faces to be honest. When everyone contributes it’s a happy environment, people are happy to have control to the team’s cause,” he said.

Kohli said this was a trying match for them, one that helped build characters.

“This was a Test match which had to be fought out, and took characters of all the players. And this is a test match where players took the opportunity rather than pressure of character building because the more we play Test matches like this the more we understand how Test cricket can be won,” he said.

“So we can keeping repeating those things, it’s all about feeding into your head and keep repeating it that’s what consistency is. So this by far, obviously individual brilliance, someone will get a magnificent hundred in the fourth innings and win you the game, you’ll feel very happy but as a captain I feel this win is far more satisfying that individual brilliance only winning you a game of cricket.”

India are always considered a team who can win Test matches when their spinners perform. Basking in the glory of his seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami picking up 12 wickets together, Kohi said his players are not affected by such perspective.

“I feel all those questions are to take the focus away from team. We don’t believe in that. We have to go out there and play cricket ourselves. We never think of external factors. Our aim is to win anywhere and everywhere that we play and we have shown that over the past one and half years,” he said.

“So we don’t go out there and prove anything to anyone that we have challenging wicket because people are asking questions. We are doing our job and people are doing theirs. That’s how the balance goes. It’s basically what we what you want to entertain and what you don’t.

“When we got out on the pitch we have control of what we can achieve and we understand our abilities we have belief in our abilities to play good cricket anywhere not putting pressure of winning on challenging wickets but believing in ourselves to execute our plan.”